Post #524135 by ikitnrev on Thu, Apr 15, 2010 12:29 PM

Here are a few more word derivations

hink - an old Scottish noun meaning 'doubt, hesitation, misgiving'

kink - nautical term, 1670's - a twist in a rope
kink - as used by Thomas Jefferson in 1803 ... "odd notion, a mental twist"

kinky - 1844 full of kinks
kinky - 1889 "odd, eccentic"

rinky dink - 1912 carnival slang - said to be imititative of the sound of a banjo in a parade

hinky - police/underground term for "suspicious/paranoid/nervous/jumpy" ; something, as yet undefinable, is wrong or not quite right

Given that carnivals had a reputation of temporarily bringing seedy characters into town it all kind of comes together. (The prizes given away in carnival games were often made of brightly painted, but cheap chalkware or other flimsy material - rinky dink prizes)

The 'sexually deviant' meaning of the word "kinky" did not arise until 1959 - perhaps 'hinky' informally stood in its place before 1959?